Review of Constitution
A report by the Service Director, Legal and Democratic Services to follow
Minutes:
Cllr Wheeler in his capacity as a Cabinet member on the Focus Group on the Review of the Constitution updated Cabinet on the work being undertaken to review the constitution.
He explained that the constitution was last reviewed during 2009/10 with the aim of having a fit for purpose constitution in place for day one of the inception of the new Council. In adopting the new constitution, Council requested the Standards Committee to review it in the light of experience after six months of operation.
Accordingly, the Standards Committee established a Focus Group to assist with the review. The membership of the Focus Group included cross party representation and representation from the Standards, Audit and Scrutiny Committees. The Focus Group met on four occasions and examined the constitution in detail. Large parts of the constitution had not changed where sections were required by legislation or statutory guidance. The Focus Group had recommended a number of changes and picked up the outcomes of the separate reviews into Area Boards, Overview and Scrutiny Arrangements and proposals put forward for Development Control which were deferred by Cabinet under the previous minute. The Focus Group also took into account feedback from Councillors.
The Standards Committee would be considering a report on the outcome of the review at a special meeting convened to consider the constitution on 26 October 2010 for onward recommendation to Council on 9 November 2010. The report to the Standards Committee and the draft revised constitution would be made available to all Councillors for their input.
Cabinet considered that user friendly leaflets summarising the relevant parts of the constitution for use by members of the public and Councillors should be provided. It was noted that this had been acknowledged during the last review and a proposal for this to be undertaken was included in the report to the Standards Committee. Cabinet also considered that a user friendly summary of the Area Handbook should also be provided.
Resolved:
That the report be noted.